It isn’t always easy to keep a child’s attention, and with Covid-19 keeping them cooped up indoors, many children are having a harder time focusing than ever. Fortunately, there are some simple ways you can make their homeschooling experience more enjoyable, and easier on yourself to boot.
1. Break Out the Tools
For teaching your child science, it’s always easier and more fun to show them how the world works with a hands-on approach. Diffraction grating glasses can be a great way to show them the natural beauty of the way light interacts with our world, and classic tactile activities like having them build a toothpick bridge can also teach them fundamentals of things like geometry and physics.
2. Active Body, Active Mind
According to a study published in 2016, incorporating exercise into a child’s daily learning boosts their ability to retain information, as reported by Scientific American. This isn’t just a great way to boost their grades, but a fantastic method for breaking up your routine and getting you and your child’s blood pumping as well.
3. A Friend in Need
While it may be more difficult for your little ones to meet up in person, it’s still important that they get a certain amount of face-to-face interaction with their friends close to every day. Make sure they can hop on a Zoom call with their pals every so often…and make sure you keep in touch with your own friends to keep from getting overwhelmed as well!
4. Movie Time
If you feel overwhelmed having to stand in front of your children and creating a new lesson plan every day, why not put on a movie and let the screen do some of the talking? Many educational movies are in the public domain and free to stream, but even some more conventional kid’s classics, like Finding Nemo, can help your child learn too as long as you’re getting them to focus on the real-world educational elements of the film (like the marine biology in the aforementioned Pixar movie, for instance).
5. Vary Your Courses
Children learn better when they have a variety of subjects to stimulate their mind throughout the day; while it might seem like a good idea to ascribe different subjects to different days, teaching each subject for around an hour at a time each day (math, science, English, etc.) will keep them on their toes and force them to use different parts of their brain. It keeps their learning experience from getting too rote…and it will likely do the same for you!
6. Fun in the Sun
While it definitely might be quite a bit harder to find safe places to bring your child during Covid-19, that doesn’t mean you still can’t occasionally take them to a public space as long as it has adequate social distancing measures in place. A field trip to somewhere like a farm or a botanical garden could be a great way to teach your child about the natural world, allow them to get some sorely needed outside time, and give them space to keep them safe from infection all at once.
7. Call (Literally) For Backup
Calling your friends isn’t just a good way to socialize and keep yourself sane during the pandemic; it can also be a good way to make sure your child is receiving their lessons from multiple sources. Studies have shown that having a variety of teachers allows your child to take in information from different points of view and process things in ways they may not have previously, and some have even taken this a step further by having two teachers consistently teach one class, with successful results.
8. Listen to Your Student
Finally, it’s important to remember that these are unprecedented times, and that means there’s no one surefire way to know what will or won’t work for teaching your child in this environment. If it seems like something isn’t working, or if your pupil flat out tells you it isn’t, don’t be afraid to mix up your strategies and take their wishes to heart.
What did you think of our ways to keep your homeschooling regimen fresh and engaging during these strange times? Do you have any pointers of your own you’d like to share with our readers? Sound off in the comments below!